Penn State football is still here. We’re still going to play the way we want to. ... We got knocked down but we got back up and we’re fighting.

As the Penn State football team huddled in the corner of the end zone to sing the alma mater after Saturday’s win, players joined arms, smiled and for a few minutes it was as if football in Happy Valley was back to normal.

Linebacker Michael Mauti had his signature eye black smeared all over his cheeks and a smile stretching across his face. The seniors rang the victory bell on their way off the field and the Homecoming crowd had a fourth consecutive win to cheer about.

Penn State coach Bill O'Brien celebrates with fans after the Nittany Lions' 24-13 win over
Temple at Beaver Stadium.JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-News

For the Penn State football team, the postseason stakes could never be lower. Because of the NCAA sanctions this team won’t be able to compete in a bowl game for four years, can’t play for the Big Ten championship and scholarship limitations are looming. However, there’s no denying how valuable wins are to these players who stuck around for a chance to play for Bill O’Brien and for a chance to represent their school.

Even for those players who the senior class may not ever know, those athletes who are either still competing in high school or are verbally committed to the program, these wins somehow still mean a lot.

“Whether we win or lose, we’re not going to coach any better or recruit any better. But it helps publicly to get a win,” secondary coach John Butler said. “We’re going to go on the road recruiting Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We’re going to go out and see kids and basically spread the message, ‘Where would you rather play college football than here?’ Anybody that says anything otherwise has never been to a game here.”

Butler’s message is one the coaching staff will try to send to junior college quarterback Jake Waters, who will have Penn State and North Carolina State evaluating him during Tuesday’s practice. Iowa Western Community College might not be the place where Penn State envisioned possibly finding a quarterback, but the strong-armed Waters has offers from four Division I programs.

Maybe Penn State’s pitch to him will have a whole lot to do with what O’Brien was able to do with Matt McGloin during a short amount of time this season? Perhaps he’ll like hearing that Penn State is a place where he can step in right away, as early as this spring, and have a chance to compete for a starting position?

He will hear about a 4-2 record and that must sound more appealing after Saturday’s win where the Lions knocked off their first ranked opponent at home since beating Michigan State in 2008.

Wins like Saturday’s, ones where the offense finds a way to grind out a victory while the defense shuts down a high-powered unit, send a message to recruits and to the rest of the players on this team whose own futures may be in limbo.

“Penn State football is still here,” senior defensive tackle Jordan Hill said. “We’re still going to play the way we want to. Just because everything we’ve been though -- and there’s been a lot -- we’re not going to be down. I think this game spoke to what we’ve been through all season. We got knocked down but we got back up and we’re fighting.”

The players had to sift through offers from other schools after the sanctions hit in July. They have until next training camp starts in August to decide if they want to stay or if transferring without any penalty is best for them. On Saturday, they also had to fight through a game and then deal with questions about whether or not they’ll pay any attention to Jerry Sandusky’s sentencing on Tuesday.

Sure enough, even the bye week will be full of story lines in State College.

“We’re trying to prove the world wrong every week,” senior cornerback Stephon Morris said with a grin.

Morris added that his team can still win the Leaders Division, the one attainable goal this unit continues to cling to.

Certainly the public perception of Penn State has changed drastically in the last 11 months. But, until the product on the field takes a tumble, and in the coming years with scholarship reductions logic says it almost certainly will, this team can use these wins as hope that players will continue to honor their commitments to O’Brien and to Penn State.

“A Big Ten win is really important,” Mauti said. “It is a test of our will and our character for a team. It gives the guys experience and confidence.”

Right now, there’s no telling how many wins this confident group might rack up.